Thing is, it doesn't empower individuals, it forces everyone to conform. If you want to empower individuals, then you've got to let teachers teach, students learn, policemen catch criminals, doctors and nurses tend to the sick, etc. And make sure that people are then responsible for their own success or failure, by eradicating the no-blame culture we've found ourselves in. Starting with accident lawyers. They are perpetuating the lie that it's impossible for anything that happens to be your fault. When it so often, and so clearly, is.
glad you recognised it however a fair response to a ridiculous statement about people you undoubtedly don't know.At least i directed it as 1 against 1 giving an opportunity to respond directly .Would you stand in front of a group of Devonians & repeat that type of bigotry, i doubt it. i will gladly repeat my comment in front of you but dont need to as the target has received it. By the way i am from London & find many Devonians frustrating because they are so pedantic & ponderous but would do anything for you it is still a community.
I'm not arguing that it's been effective, quite the reverse. If you have the time have a look at the documentary, all three parts if you have a few hours though it gets a bit repetitive. It helps understand how this mania to measure started and how tied it is to a lot of other things. It's about the perverted concept of freedom we now seem to be condemned to strive for. For your dreams to be achieved we would have to trust people to do their best - teachers, doctors and not just public servants - out of duty, professionalism and just the desire to do a good job and gain satisfaction from that. Trust is a habit we have sadly grown distant to.
We do agree - even if it seems otherwise! Trust and Respect are (IMO) two of the most key things we have lost and that we need back. Trust in freeing up people to fail, understanding that they are looking and trying to succeed at all times, and Respect in the way we treat people and how we wish to be treated. Respect is a term that's been a little bastardized and hijacked, to the point where it's an expectation and a right for any crazy position rather than something that should be earned by acting respectfully towards others - not least people in authority like teachers, the police, etc.
Non EU immigrants - high degree of skilled workers EU immigrants - very high degree of non-skilled workers who undercut the market and suppress the wages of British workers Michael Gove's prediction of another 5m added to our already dense population by 2030 is right on course
I think that is a massive under-estimate if things remain the same, every estimate that has been made in the past two decades has been massively short of reality. We only have official figures to go on at present yet compared to the number of National Insurance numbers allocated the official figures are barely one third. I believe that 5 million will arrive in probably half that time and Gove is supposed to be persuading us to support the 'Leave' campaign...
Gove's taken enough stick for predicting 5m. Imagine how Dave and George would have reacted if he'd made it 10m, which I agree is quite possible looking at the rate of increase of EU immigration over the last 15 years...
So...................according to one of our rulers, Jean-Claude Juncker, European Commission President, ALL right wing parties across Europe should be barred from all decision making in the EU. Any democratically elected right wing government will face sanctions and that Country would possibly lose all voting rights. The Commission has just awarded itself these powers. Poland has already been warned that, having elected a socially conservative government, that they may face sanctions and lose all decision making powers. Just because these un-elected bureaucrats don't like their government. Juncker has also warned Austria not to elect a right wing government or else they could face similar sanctions. So, you can only elect a government in the EU that this idiot and his cronies agrees with. The Commission isn't fond of left-wing governments either, judging by what happened to Greece when they elected one with an agenda to end austerity! How can anyone who wants to live in a democracy vote to remain in this totally undemocratic, elitist club? If we vote to stay, it will only get worse and worse!
This relates to something put into place in 2014, designed to protect EU citizens from the actions of their own government if that government starts to act in a way that is oppressive to its own people and not in line with the common standards of a democracy in Europe. The government doing such things might be right wing fascists, left wing stalinists, white supremacists, religious fanatics or something else. The basic idea is that a government should not oppress its own people and flout the rule of international law. Why should the EU stand by and watch one of its own members sliding into that sort of way of operating? I don't think it should. I find it hard to believe that you do, either.
I find it hard to believe that you think this is, in any way, democracy. Seems more like something from the old Soviet Union to me. Greece's government was hardly oppressing it's people, the opposite in fact. But it had to abandon its anti-austerity programme immediately due to bullying from the EU. This is not democracy. If something is the free will of a Country's people and the elections were above board, the EU should absolutely not interfere. I want to live in a democracy, unlike you it seems.
put to Jacqueline Smith was 330,000 too many, she couldn't just say yes, blustered her way through the question. And there's the rub, the left have no problem with mass immigration
So, on that premise, had the UK elected UKIP as the government at the last election we would now be under Juncker's rule having lost all powers and Nigel Farage would be getting blotto in his local... You seriously couldn't make it up...
Or, if a country does not wish to abide by whatever rules the EU has about what 'democracy' means (I haven't looked them up, but would guess they are the ones stopping progress of the Turkish application) it should leave the EU. Juncker was and is an idiot to issue threats about things that haven't happened, but the EU has done some good work with the government of Poland, which has been trying to roll back its own constitution, limiting freedom of the media, flooding the judicial system with political appointments and giving itself rights to poke into citizens' affairs. They are now backing down a bit due to EU pressure. Should the management of a club sit by if a member breaks the rules, or ask the member to change its ways or piss off? Of course, whether Juncker is the person to be fronting this up is another question. Greece is a difficult one. Their policy was essentially dictated by the terms of the bail out. A complete ****ing mess in my opinion. They could have defaulted and left the euro, and probably the EU, but I think guessed this would cause even more hardship. Some may think otherwise now. If the people of a country wish to elect a bunch of Nazis or Maoists to government and never have the chance to vote for anyone in a meaningful way again, they can. They just can't do that and stay in the EU. Which is all in line with your sovereignty argument, just as long as you recognise that sovereignty relatively unshared within one country in no way guarantees democracy.
You're making an incorrect assumption in the absence of an actual argument for your case. I like living in a democracy - and want safeguards to keep it that way. We have 5 years between elections in the UK. Other countries may be in a similar position. A lot can happen between elections and some of those things may not be what the people actually voted for or expected to happen. History shows us that anything is possible. If my government decided to act in an undemocratic way I would want the rest of the EU to do what it could to encourage it to revert. Greece and the rights or wrongs of their inability to secure the financial rescue package they wanted was not the EUs finest hour, nor the IMFs, but it wasn't bullying.
It seems that many people are happy to go along with all the shortcomings of the undemocratic EU in the hope that this idealistic, failing hotchpotch of badly fitting countries will somehow, magically come good.
whose value judgement & who is the arbitor of right & wrong i'd say it is the voters of that country .Does EU intends declaring war with all countries that decide to leave the control of EU elite group
They have done alright for the past 40, 50, 60 years. Not perfect by any means but I don't see anybody starving or having wars with each other.
I love it when Tories go populist. It doesn't last long though, usually until they win an election, or get what they were after. Then they go back to feathering their own gigantic but rather soiled nests. I like these new rules where nothing anyone says has to be true, or even civil, let alone sensible. Let's hope your respect for the voters extends to a majority Remain vote.
Oh God, Question Time. How long will I stick with it for tonight.......haven't seen the panellists yet, could be an instant channel switch. Hmm, Steve Hilton, an interesting Tory, might give it a few minutes. Oh dear, he looks like an even camper Matt Dawson (rugby player) and has been skilfully caught out by a novelist lady already. Bored now, turning over to see an episode of Family Guy.
